members

The Hudson Bay Project Team

Principal Investigators - still slogging in the tundra

	Kenneth Abraham is a wildlife research biologist and conservation manager with over 30 years of experience with the coastal ecosystems of the Hudson Bay lowlands. He has studied brant, Canada and lesser snow goose populations extensively within this region. Wildlife Research and Development Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, DNA Bldg., Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario K9J 7B8 Canada. voice: 705.755.1547 fax: 705.755.1559 email: Ken.Abraham@ontario.ca

	Rod Brook is a wildlife biologist with over 10 year experience working across the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Hudson Bay Lowlands. He has studied arctic breeding goose and duck populations in the north and has interests in their population dynamics and in community ecology of arctic and northern boreal ecosystems. Wildlife Research and Development Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, DNA Bldg., Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario K9J 7B8 Canada. voice: 705.755.1503fax: 705.755.1559email: rod.brook@ontario.ca

	Robert Jefferies is a plant ecologist with 45 years experience, especially in coastal ecosystems. His studies of plant/herbivore interactions involving coastal forage plants and lesser snow geese on the Cape Churchill peninsula started in 1978. Since 1992, these interactions have been examined at different sites along the Hudson Bay lowlands. Department of Botany, University of Toronto, 25 Wilcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3B2 Canada. voice: 416.978.3534 fax: 416.978.5878 email: jefferie@eeb.utoronto.ca

	Robert Rockwell is a population biologist with over 35 years of experience. His interests center on population dynamics, lifetime reproductive success and genetic structure, especially of arctic geese. He has directed the snow goose research program at La Pérouse Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, for nearly 25 years and has also worked on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of southwest Alaska. Department of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192. voice: 212.769.5793 fax: 212.769.5759 email: rfr@amnh.org

Dale Caswell, Canadian Wildlife Service, 123 Main Street, Suite 150, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 4W2 Canada (dale.caswell@ec.gc.ca)

Evan Cooch, Department of Natural Resources, Fernow Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 (evan.cooch@cornell.ed)

Jack Hughes, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, South Wing, Room 3624, 335 River Road, Ottawa ON, Ottawa ON K1A 0H3 (jack.hughes@ec.gc.ca)

Mike Johnson, North Dakota Game and Fish, 100 North Bismarck Expressway, Bismarck, ND 58501 (mjohnson@state.nd.us)

David Koons, Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, 5230 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322 (koons@demogr.mpg.de)

Peter Kotanen, Department of Botany, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road North, Mississauga, Ontario, L5L 1C6, Canada. (pkotanen@credit.erin.utoronto.ca)

Jim Leafloor, Canadian Wildlife Service, 123 Main Street, Suite 150, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 4W2 Canada (Jim.Leafloor@ec.gc.ca)

Scott R. McWilliams, Department of Natural Resources Science, University of Rhode Island, Coastal Institute in Kingston, 1 Greenhouse Road Kingston, RI 02881 (srmcwilliams@uri.edu)

	Kate Edwards, Department of Botany, University of Toronto, 25 Wilcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3B2 Canada. Kate's doctoral research centers on below-ground nutrient cycling in Arctic sedge meadows at spring thaw. She is particularly interested in changes in microbial and nutrient levels that occur between winter and spring. as it will provide a better understanding of what drives soil microbial and nutrient dynamics and the resulting nutrient availability to plants. The research will contribute to the growing body of work seeking to explain how seasonal events regulate soil biogeochemistry and "bottom up" ecological processes. email: edwardskate@yahoo.ca

	Linda Gormezano, Department of Vertebrate Biology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024 USA. Linda (shown with scat detecting dog Quinoa) is interested in using and refining techniques to use genetic analyses of non-invasively sampled tissue like scat and hair to estimate the abundance, landscape use and genetic relationships among top predators. This portion of her doctoral research focuses on the polar bears in and around Wapusk National Park. She is also evaluating the diet of polar bears during the ice-free period and so far has found that many of them make use of the snow geese found in the area. email: ljgorm@amnh.org.

	Elise Gornish, Department of Vertebrate Biology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024 USA. Elise is interested in conservation biology and is focussing her efforts primarily on plant systems. She is examining the potential of fresh- and salt-marsh ecosystems to recover from destructive foraging by snow geese by erecting and monitoring exclosures in areas a extremely degraded habitat. Although she will begin her formal thesis work on a different system in Florida this fall, she will continue monitoring these recovery exclosures as part of her doctoral training. email: esg07c@fsu.edu

	Emma Horrigan. Department of Botany, University of Toronto, 25 Wilcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3B2 Canada. Emma is interested in studying plant-microbial interactions and how they are modified by changes in the intensity and frequency of snow goose herbivory. Such studies are key to undertanding the fundamental feedbacks between plants and herbivores. This research is also important for estimating the impacts of snow geese movement into inland freshwater sedge meadows, from their degraded coastal salt marsh habitat, on the nutrient cycling dynamics of these systems. Email: emma_in_ghana@hotmail.com

	Kit Schnaars-Uvino, Department of Vertebrate Biology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024 USA. As part of her doctoral training, Kit is helping to analyze spatial and temporal changes in the relative frequencies of the color morphs of lesser snow geese in and around Wapusk National Park. Tracking these differences and changes should provide insights on the broader dynamics of dispersal among the segments of the Mid-Continent population, whose nesting colonies are known to differ in this conspicuous color dimorphism. email: kituvino@gmail.com

	Chris Sharp, Department of Biology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, K9J 7B8. Chris's research is focused on determining the origins and allocation of nutrients in reproduction by Canada and snow geese using stable isotope techniques. He is comparing the strategies of nutrient acquisition by sympatric populations of these on Akimiski Island. The snow geese are part of the mid-continent population wintering in the southern U.S. and migrating through the Great Plains. The Canada geese are part of the Southern James Bay Population wintering in the upper midwest and migrating through Ontario. Both stage in agricultural areas, but make use of boreal or sub arctic wetlands in the final stages of migration before nesting. He is also comparing strategies of Canada geese in resource poor versus resource rich nesting areas. email: christophersharp@trentu.ca

	Chris Witte, Department of Vertebrate Biology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024 USA. Chris is interested in the interplay of animals with their coastal and interior habitats. Shown here as part of the team monitoring birds in the boreal forest sections of Wapusk National Park, he is also heading up our work on snow goose induced vegetation degradation in the coastal and inland marshes near Thompson Point. email: maocrow@cox.net